Russian Special Forces Training
What on Earth…
8–2–16, Adil
At one point during Russian special purpose forces training, the trainees are shot at the chest while wearing body armor to give them a taste of the real battlefield. They literally stand there, and then they wait for someone to casually walk past them but then suddenly draw a pistol and shoot them repeatedly in the chest. After taking these hits, they are to return fire — and they have to aim just inches away from the attacker’s unprotected face. Like, if they miss by a few inches they blow the head off the trainer.
In a second drill, the trainee is given multiple cardboard targets to shoot, but while he does so, he is pushed and shoved by trainers, has stuff yelled in his ear, and guns fired immediately adjacent to his ears. These are all supposed to simulate distractions on the battlefield and enhance the trainees’ focus in stressful situations. In an even higher-stakes version of the drill, they put real humans immediately adjacent to the cardboard targets, so they if they miss, they hit real people. This is supposed to train them to focus on their shooting even when innocent bystanders are nearby.
See video of all this here.
